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iPhone Trade-In Options Multiply, Here's Your Guide

For many this is going to be the easiest part and for others, it will be the hardest. While the iPhone 3GS still might be worth a bit on eBay, for trade-in purposes, the oldest model with meaningful value is the iPhone 4. But Apple has made iPhones in 2 colors, 4 memory configurations, 3 models since then, and for several carriers. The exact value of your phone depends on all of those factors. For that reason, the chart I’ve included is nothing more than a guideline to give you a sense of what your phone is worth. I picked the 16GB iPhone in black for AT&T, which is the most common memory configuration on the carrier that historically has sold the most iPhones overall. Verizon and Sprint models tend to be worth a bit less.

The extra memory you paid $100 for is probably going to fetch less than half that on a trade-in and the physical condition of your phone will also affect its value. The closer your phone is to looking new, the more it’s worth, not unlike trading in your car. For all of you who were mocked by friends by putting your phone in a case, if it was a good quality case, your decision is about to be vindicated.

As the chart shows, even for the same model phone in the same condition, pricing can vary wildly. Apple, Amazon, Gazelle and Glyde will all buy your phone from you at an pre-arranged price, but the amounts they’ll pay differ by a great deal on the iPhone 4 and 5, much less on the iPhone 4S. (The caveat in the chart bears repeating: All these trade-in prices can and will change. They will get lower in the weeks after the new phones are released and used phones start flooding the market. Apple’s pricing is likely to be adjusted frequently as will that of the other third parties).

Consider the pricing you see a guideline. Your carrier will likely pay you about as much as Apple if they accept trade-ins. Best Buy just rolled out a program where they will knock half off the retail price of a new iPhone and — if your phone is worth more — give you the difference in a Best Buy gift card. That might not be appealing if you don’t need anything else at Best Buy and you have a phone of especially high value. Most people won’t be in that circumstance, though.

Amazon also gives out gift cards, but of course sells almost everything. For customers that shop there regularly (disclaimer: me), Amazon credit is basically cash. Last year, Amazon’s offer was more attractive than anything I could find outside of eBay and having $430 sitting in my Amazon account wasn’t much of a problem as it was spent over the ensuing months.

While it might seem appealing to get cash from Gazelle or Glyde, keep in mind that you’ll be buying a new phone in most cases, unless you happen to have an iPhone sitting in a desk drawer already. Even if you get $225 from Glyde for your 4S, after paying for a new 5S and the sales tax and possibly a carrier activation fee, you might need more than that to complete your upgrade. Certainly, if you go for a 32GB model of the new phone you will have to come up with some additional money out of pocket.

Step 4: Maximization and timing

For those that find such a prospect unappealing, there’s eBay, where the market is truly at work and you’re likely to find the absolute best price. The buyers there are people who aren’t eligible for a discounted upgrade or are planning on sending the phones overseas and so they are paying sometimes as much as $500 for an iPhone 5 in excellent condition. That could change dramatically if the rumored low-cost iPhone 5C is offered below $400 as many expect. But it’s true for the meantime.

And this presents a bit of a dilemma. While Gazelle will guarantee your pricing now until October 15 (meaning you can arrange the deal today and not mail them your phone for 6 weeks), an eBay sale requires you to ship within a few days of closing. You can’t auction your phone Sept. 5 and ship it Sept. 25 without violating eBay’s terms of service so be careful on timing if you go that route.

The opposite end of the spectrum is going to be trading your phone in as you purchase a new one, much like you might do with a car. The analogy holds with respect to price, too. Apple (and likely Best Buy or your carrier) will come in at the low end of the pricing spectrum. While the chart has only estimates for Apple’s pricing, they are based on information sourced by TechCrunch, 9to5 Mac and insiders. Apple’s program has its own quirks. The company’s stores will only allow you to trade-in for a new iPhone on contract so you can’t use any of the proceeds towards the purchase of a Macbook or iPad. But for many, the lost opportunity to make an extra $50-100 will be more than compensated by the instant gratification of walking in with the old phone and out with a new one. And as I type this looking at the non-4G iPhone 4S against the iPhone 5, my sense is people getting a brand new 5S will be pretty satisfied, especially if they have to pay very little to make that happen. Not to mention that Apple’s friendly sales staff and Genius bar reps will be on hand to walk you through the process I outlined above in case it seems daunting.

If you want to get the most value, though, your best bet is going to be to pre-order your new iPhone as soon as it’s announced so that whatever sale option you choose, you can complete it as fast as possible. Gazelle’s generosity notwithstanding, the Amazon offers got worse last year almost immediately and as noted, eBay might see precipitous declines.

Conclusion

If you’re trying to boil this down into a really short decision, it goes like this. First, don’t put your old phone in a drawer. Either give it your kid, your grandma, a program that helps the homeless or women who have been victims of domestic violence. Second, if you decide to trade in your phone and don’t want to think much about it:

For convenience: Bring it to an Apple store.

For Amazon customers looking for the best overall deal: Sell it to Amazon.

For the absolute best price: Sell it on eBay or Craigslist.

Any questions should be posted below in the comments. I’ll do my best to answer them and also incorporate good feedback or common concerns in the updated version of this post that will appear around the iPhone’s release date.

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Since almost everything is already part of the iCloud system, like your contacts, notes, photos, etc, what exactly are you backing up? The only thing I’d want is to have my apps in the same place on the phone, which I don’t think is covered by restoring from backup. And since there are certain to be changes in the OS, what is really going to be accomplished by a backup? I know that sounds like a stupid question, but I really want to know. Also there is a lot of data that could be taking up space that you can only clear by creating a fresh install, since you can’t easily delete the data by itself.

2) All it does is back up your data and that’s true whether you plug into iTunes or not. This isn’t a backup in the sense of backing up your PC. Music ends up being an odd case since owned music on the phone that wasn’t purchased from iTunes won’t just backup.

A bunch of apps take up space for various reasons, that’s why a fresh install gives you space back. Some use it for caching, others use it for sloppy programming. Some are able to stow their own information in the cloud and will reclaim the space if you reinstall but some have just gotten sloppy over time.

You have reminded me I need to include a step on resetting your phone for the updated post. Thanks for reading.

Hey there, I was curious on what you opinion is regarding the safety of backing up on iCloud? I have been a loyal Mac user for a good decade+, but i still choose to back up on my external hard drive (my 2 TB My Passport Studio that I loveeee!). Although I do not think that it is the priority of many hacker’s to breach iClouds security system, but at the same time I find it hard to believe that there are none who do wish to accomplish it. Wasn’t there an incident a couple years ago or so regarding this? I do not remember so I am not saying it definitely happened, just wondering. I know it takes some more time for me to plug into my external, but the Passport makes it nice and easy so I really do not mind the process if makes me feel more secure. Is this a hesitation for you or anyone you know by chance? Thanks! :)

I’m of the mind that with hundreds of millions of people backed up on iCloud, the odds of any hacker finding your information in a hack are pretty low. Now, if someone gets your password, the fact that you leave your information up on a server they can access from a computer makes it less secure than your phone (which can hold onto) and a hard drive in your house.

But I wouldn’t worry much about hackers; it’s an exceptionally low risk.

I tried out www.exchangeit.us after shopping around and comparing a few price quotes. They offered me more then the major trade in sites. I am sure the market prices change for the sites but taking a few time to price compare is worth it. Some sites had anywhere from a $20-50 payout increase. People forget with ebay that they charge a 10% fee from your sale and then if you use paypal they charge you a 2.9% fee.